Both Treehugger and TriplePundit have pointed to this post from marketing guru Tom Peter’s blog that ask the questions “Why has the issue of global warming been so poorly marketed? Why is the brand called “The Global Warming Catastrophe” such a weak brand? What can—and should—be done?” It’s an interesting question, and an interesting way of “framing” the issue, but I tend to agree with Nick that “branding” isn’t the issue. I do think that “framing” is, though, and that ultimately this brings us back to some of the questions raised in recent months by “The Death of Environmentalism,” or by Matt Yglesias’ post at TAPPED yesterday: namely, what contexts should we employ in addressing issues like climate change? As many of you know, I’m all in favor of broadening our contexts, as this gives us an opportunity to show people exactly how climate change affects them directly. As I said yesterday, we should never lose sight of the environmental impact of global warming, but as long as the environment is perceived as something “out there,” an awful lot of people will dismiss these ideas out of hand.
Technorati tags: climate change, environmentalism, framing
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